“My children found this worm on our driveway in west Tennessee”, writes Heather in her submission regarding the dark brown, segmented worm-like organism pictured below. “Can you help me identify it? Its underside was slightly lighter colored, kind of flattened, and it had a disk-like foot structure (possibly) at one end. Thank you.” Firstly, we want to thank Heather for the fantastic photos. The good lighting and sharp details make our job so much easier, and provides a great resource for others who find similar-looking organisms and want to know what they are. Secondly, whoever’s finger is in the photo below is very lucky, because what Heather’s children found is a leech.

“I found this in my swimming pool in Mobile, Alabama and I’m wondering if it’s a leech?”, asks Dean in his submission regarding the glossy, black, worm-like creature pictured below. Right off the bat, we have to agree with Dean that this does look like a leech. That said, when we zoomed in on the photo, we saw what looked like part of the creature’s underside, which was a lighter gray color. This made us think about slugs, and the possibility of this being one, though leeches also typically have lighter-colored undersides.

“Can you help me identify this worm?” asks this reader in her submission regarding the white organism pictured below. “It’s super tiny and I have been getting bites which have left welts. The last ones have even pushed up.” We are not exactly sure what our reader means in this last sentence, but, in any case, we will unfortunately not be able to identify this worm-like critter. This is due to our reader expressly stating that the organism is harming her body, and as such, the situation becomes potentially medical in nature. Since we are not medical professionals, we are not qualified, or legally able, to identify such creatures, as doing so would be tantamount to providing a medical diagnosis.

A translucent, “really small” worm-like creature was found by this reader in her home. She states they were “mostly seen in the bathroom sink”, and thus asks if they are ” possibly sink worms?” The worm in question is pictured below. One can see its near transparency, and the dark entrails visible through its skin. Our reader does not clarify how many of these she has found in her home, and what other places she has discovered them in. Nonetheless, we have come across this critter so many times that we can identify it merely by the picture provided: this is a flea larva.

“This worm/larva was found crawling up a shower curtain”, states this reader living North of the 45th parallel. “Any ideas what it might be?” he asks. No further context is provided, but the photo below depicts the white, semi-transparent organism our reader is asking about.

“What is this larva I found on my daughter’s windowsill?” asks this reader from Chicago about the transparent, long creature pictured below. “If it helps there’s also some kind of nest outside the window (at the top left) and pigeons sit out there often.”